1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for ejecting an inserted disk completely even though it has been caught in a slot while being ejected with its upside down or because of malfunction of a sensor detecting whether a disk has been ejected or inserted.
2. Description of the Related Art
A disk drive, which is commonly connected to a personal computer (PC), reads data written in an optical disk and transmits to a PC through a connecting interface. A disk drive has two types for disk insertion/ejection. Two types are tray-type and slot-type. A slot-type disk drive has a detecting means used for determining whether a disk has been ejected or inserted completely. The detecting means may be constructed by sensors or switches. In the sensor-type disk drive, two sensors installed along the disk loading/unloading path detect whether a disk is ejected completely or not. In the switch-type disk drive, the contacting status of a switch is changed when a disk is ejected completely, however, the switch mechanism is not so simple that it is difficult to slim a disk drive equipped with the switch. Accordingly, the disk drive of sensor-type is widely used.
When a user inserts an optical disk into a slot-type disk drive, the disk may be sometimes inserted into a slot with its upside down due to carelessness of a user. Nevertheless, the disk drive may consider that the disk has been inserted normally since advertising pictures such as company logo drawn on the back side of the disk do not pass under or over a sensor 2 detecting whether there is the recording side thereunder or thereover as shown in FIG. 1. Then, a user will request the inserted disk to be ejected because the data reproduction fails. However, the advertising pictures drawn on the back side may pass under or over the sensor 2 at this time during the disk ejection.
If a black area of the advertising pictures is positioned under or over the sensor 2, a beam of the sensor 2 incident on the area is not reflected, which makes the output signal of the sensor detecting the reflecting beam be changed. Therefore, the disk drive considers that the disk has been ejected completely based on the change of the output signal, and stops disk ejecting operation. Then, the disk remains caught in the slot as shown in FIG. 1 so that it is very difficult for a user to take out the disk from the slot.
Even though a disk has been inserted normally, a disk may remain caught in the slot as shown in FIG. 1 during disk ejection if the sensor 2 can not detect the reflected beam due to stains of recording surface or its malfunction.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a disk ejecting method enabling an inserted disk to be ejected completely at the ejecting request even if the disk has been caught in a slot due to upside-down insertion of a disk or malfunction of a sensor.
A disk ejecting method in accordance with the present invention drives a disk ejecting motor irrespective of the output status of a sensor detecting whether a disk has been ejected or not, when a command requesting ejection of an inserted disk is received.